


Mind over Matter

by Grumperella



Series: Febuwhump 2021: The Mandalorian Misadventures [1]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Adorable Grogu | Baby Yoda, Din "I don't know about "Jedi" stuff" Djarin, Din "what's the Force" Djarin, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Good Parent Din Djarin, Grogu | Baby Yoda Being a Little Shit, Grogu | Baby Yoda Needs a Hug, ManDadlorian, Protective Din Djarin, Protective Grogu | Baby Yoda, Sad Grogu | Baby Yoda, Soft Din Djarin, she deserves it, the Razor Crest gets fed some yummy fuel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29362485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grumperella/pseuds/Grumperella
Summary: Febuwhump Prompt Day 1: Mind Control___When Din stops to refuel the Razor Crest, he and the child get backed into a corner. Desperate, the child acts, and for the first time... Din is afraid. Not for him, but of him...__Takes place sometime between Ep 5 and Ep 7.
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda
Series: Febuwhump 2021: The Mandalorian Misadventures [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2156874
Comments: 7
Kudos: 56





	Mind over Matter

**Author's Note:**

> (Re-post from my existing Febuwhump series, because I'm transitioning the multi-chap fit into a Series.)

_Kshhhhhhh_. The comm fuzzed with static as Din waited. A few moments passed, then-

“ _Razor Crest,”_ came a tinny voice, _“you’re cleared for refueling dock 39_.”

“Copy.” He responded, deftly piloting the old gunship around the rim of the space station, following his compu-nav’s directions to the proper docking port. Seeing a peeling and faded “39” painted large over a section, he swung the ship around and sideways, carefully easing the Crest’s underbelly into alignment with the station’s air-tight dock. Just as he touched down, he felt the station’s locking clamps latch on to the Crest, the jolt making him sway in his seat. The little figure beside him cooed in surprise, falling backwards onto his rear from where he’d been standing on the cockpit dash. 

Din cocked his helmet to the side wryly.

“That's why I always tell you to sit in your seat when it’s time to land.” The child just giggled and clapped his hands together, looking up at Din with one ear raised. 

“It’s not like you ever listen to me, why start now.” He said sardonically, shaking his head. Flicking buttons and booting down systems, Din unlocked the fuel tank’s seal before the ship's final shut down sequence, then rose from the pilot’s chair. He looked down at his “copilot”. 

“You ready to get out of this ship for a bit?” 

“Ehhh!” The child stretched out short stubby arms to the man, who took the cue and lifted the kid up to rest him against his chest.

“Thought so.” He responded with a small smile. Tucking his ward into the crook of one arm, he grabbed his rifle from the hook on the wall behind the cockpit and slung it over his back one-handed before sliding down the ladder to the lower deck. Glancing around for a moment, he finally spied the kid’s carrying bag. 

He’d only recently started using the small brown sack for the child when it became clear that he couldn’t leave him alone on the ship for long. After seeing that _utreekov_ wannabe bounty hunter holding a rifle to the kid’s head, Din had viscerally decided in that moment that he never should have left the kid alone. Not only had the toddler somehow escaped the locked bunk, but he'd wandered out of the ship and gotten seen, which led to the dangerous culmination events. Not to mention, if Peli had been anyone of lesser character, it could have ended even worse. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. So, he’d drudged up an old shoulder bag that he used for market trips and decided it was big enough to hold the kid. It’d taken a few tries to get the little one to understand what he wanted to do, but after it had clicked, the child had been thrilled to join Din on his jaunts outside the ship when he stopped to restock supplies or refuel the ship, like he was doing now. The kid didn’t seem to mind swaying at his hip as they walked, and Din couldn’t exactly afford a new pram at the moment, so it would have to do.

Putting the kid down on one of the crates, he held open the bag. Squealing happily, the child scrambled into the sack and gripped the edge of the cloth, looking up at him expectantly. Smirking, Din tossed the strap over his shoulder and swept his cloak around, to shield the kid from prying eyes.

"Comfy?" He queried, glancing down at the little wrinkled face.

"Ato, toh!" Owlish black eyes blinked back him as the kid burbled. 

“Good. Alright, bud, time to haggle.”

Opening, the airlock on the floor of the ship, Din stepped down the ladder into the space station’s loading tube, which stretched downward at a slight angle until the man was reoriented to the station’s gravitational “up”. As he climbed down, he could hear the cacophony of other travelers doing business getting steadily louder.

Finally, the tube emptied out into a large docking bay and Din dropped down to the floor with a grunt, taking in the busy bay teeming with activity before him. Colored arrows painted on the durasteel floor where he’d dropped down told him in aurebesh which direction to go for different destinations: payment station, weapons lockers, cantina, hard goods market, fresh goods market, and so on. Luckily, he’d been to this particular refueling station in the Kessel sector before. Being that it was tucked away in the deep Outer Rim, it was a favorite for smugglers and bounty hunters alike. Ignoring the arrows, Din scanned the bay, easily finding the payment station far off to the right, and began making his way through the bustling crowd. 

Most fueling stations in the Core and Mid-Rim you could simply transact over the holo-net, transferring credits while droids worked quickly to fuel your ship. Here in the Outer Rim, everything was in cash. No transfers prints, no trail - exactly what he wanted. Plus, when it was cash at a skeevy station he could haggle the price down. He didn't usually bother, but now on the run with the kid in tow and no chance for Guild work, every credit counted.

Din tried to ignore the feeling of the little body at his hip squirming as he walked, aware that the kid was trying to wriggle his tiny head out from behind the cloak to see better. Finally looking down at the continued fidgeting, Din huffed while keeping his pace.

"Hey, settle do-" Suddenly the heavily armored man was rocked bodily to the side as a large Devaronian bumped into him and a high-pitched squawk sounded from the bag. A red horned head looked down with a raised eyebrow and Din dropped a hand to the bag protectively, tensing, but the creature merely grunted an apology and kept going. Releasing a sharp breath, Din looked down to make sure the kid was okay. Large eyes squinted up at him in displeasure. He sighed.

“Sorry, kid. I’ll try to be more careful.”

The man didn’t have to worry about the kid’s scorn long though - only a moment later the squinted eyes widened eagerly when a massive Besalisk in brightly colored robes lumbered by, four arms swinging leisurely at his sides. The child pointed excitedly and looked up at Din, one ear bending against his armor. The Mandalorian couldn’t help a small smile, resuming his pace.

“I see him, bud. Four arms'd be pretty handy, huh?” 

He was glad the kid got a kick out of seeing all the new creatures and places as they traveled. He knew his small ship wasn’t exactly a playground for the kid and being on the run didn't afford them a lot of time planetside… he only hoped small moments like this were enough.

Seeing an open window at the payment station, Din eased up to it smoothly, startling the bored Chadra-fan sitting behind the transparisteel. 

“Ooh, oh, oh!” It said excitedly in a high-pitched chitter. “G-greeting, sir!”

“Port 39. Need a full refuel.”

“Sure, sure. What type of ship you got, sir?”

“Takes Rhydonium and needs a new fuel power cell.” Din responded, purposely not answering the attendant's question. Stations always asked so they’d know what kind of fuel to use, but get the wrong attendant and that information got used in... other ways. He wasn’t that naive.

The little brown creature tapped away at a console beside him, flat snout twitching.

“Got it, got it.” It paused and looked sideways at him, head angled up from its short standing. “Hey, ain’t you a Mandalorian?”

“Last I checked.” Din said shortly, already getting a bad feeling.

“Feel like I seen something recently ‘bout a Mandalorian… where’d I see that?”

“How much.” Din pressed frustratedly, trying to move them past the creature’s dangerous musings.

“Oh, right, sure, sure! Gonna be 2000 standard credits, sir.” Even as he said it, Din could see the Chadra-fan's black, greedy eyes looking him up and down, its head cocked to the side. His shoulders tensed, hoping it wouldn’t think too hard about it.

“You take peggats?”

“Course! We're in Hutt space ain't we? That’ll be 50 peggats.” The high-pitched voice was starting to grate on Din. He'd wanted to haggle on the price, but a deep, desperate instinct was telling him to end this transaction as quickly as possible. 2000 credits was high, but not unfair... he'd just have deal with it. As he reached into his belt pouch to pull out the money, the voice perked up again. A pulse of tingling adrenaline shot through him.

“Oh oh! I know where I sees a Mando: that _wanted_ holo. Worth a lot, ya know. Wouldn’t be you, would it?”

Either this Chadra-fan was playing with him, or it was genuinely, incredibly stupid. He thought it might be the latter.

“Don’t think so.” Din grunted, passing over the peggats through the round opening in the window, where the creatures sharp claws pulled them in. It shrugged and twitched a brown, furred ear, typing the commands to approve the refueling into his terminal.

“S’pose not, s’pose not. The Mando I sees had a little one with him anyways. You don’t have nothin’ like that, do yas.” 

Keeping in line with his luck of late, the kid chose that exact moment to let out a little coo and reached up a clawed little hand to tap against the counter, trying to pull himself up so that he could see over it. Din hastily pushed him down and shushed him, but it was too late. With a gasp, the short bat-like creature jumped onto the interior counter to press his face against the transparisteel, looking down with wide eyes and mouth at the tiny green face that looked up at him. 

Seeing the curious furred brown creature through the window, the kid squealed with delight and clapped his hands, pointing like he had earlier. This time, Din wasn’t amused.

Hand dropping to his blaster lightning fast, Din swept his cloak over the kid and angled his hip away, settling into an imposing, battle ready stance. 

“You- you- yer him!” The Chadra-fan squeaked, pulling out his own blaster and aiming it through the window's opening. “I’ll be rich!” 

“I wouldn’t try it.” Din seethed darkly, trying to sound as intimidating as he knew he could.

“What ya gonna do Mando? I got yer ship locked up at P-39, ya couldn’t take off mid-fuel if ya wanted to.”

Din knew the creature was right - had known it from the moment he saw the small beady eyes look him up and down - they were trapped here. A heavy dread dropped into the pit of his stomach as he tried to think of how they’d get out of this one. He could run, but to where? His _beskar’gam_ didn’t yield to blending in very well, and while the station was large, it was still self contained, he didn’t have anywhere to go. He could try to steal another ship to escape, but that was risky on a number of fronts, and he’d likely get caught before he ever made it to one. He could just shoot the attendant, but it still had the lock on his ship... Plus, he had the kid with him, he didn’t want to risk things breaking out into an all-out firefight. 

Dread and anxiety bloomed into panic. Pulling out his blaster slowly, he set it on the payment window’s counter, raising his empty gun hand placatingly, the other still curled around the child at his hip.

“Listen, this doesn’t have to end in bloodshed… I have more peggats. I can pay you. Just forget you ever saw us and we’ll be on our way.”

The bat-creature chuckled, a shrill twitter that ended in him cocking his blaster. 

“Oh sure, sure, Mando. Ha! No ways ya got the kinda money that’s on yer head. And the kiddie’s worth even more!”

Din’s panic spiked at that, he grit his teeth, heart racing in his chest. His left hand clenched around the child, who cooed up at him, worriedly. The Chadra-fan was tapping away at his terminal now, keeping his blaster steady as beady eyes flit between his screen and the Mandalorian frozen at the window.

He’d run. He had to. Despite having nowhere to go, he couldn’t just stand here, nor could he break through the transparisteel window with his bare fists to strangle the attendant like he really wanted to.

Heart pounding in his ears, fear for the child tingled throughout his body into his fingertips. He pulled the kid up to his chest and cradled him with both arms.

“I’m sorry kid, we’re caught.” He whispered tightly down to the little bundle. “I’m gonna make a run for it and find somewhere for you to hide, okay? You have to hide and not come out until the bad guys are gone, no matter what you hear, okay? Please tell me you understand.”

But instead of coo-ing up at him, the kid was squirming to turn around, short arms reaching insistently for the window’s little ledge. The Chadra-fan did a double take and stood abruptly, stopping his tapping to aim the blaster straight at the kid’s small body.

“What’s he doing, eh?” Din tried to pull the kid down out of the way of the blaster’s aim, but the child had managed to dig his clawed grip into the counter and he held on stubbornly, babbling insistently at the man. Wondering what the kid was trying to do, Din let the child pull himself onto the ledge where he placed one little tri-digit hand against the clear barrier, eyes squinting, head dropping. 

_Wait… that… he looked like that when he…_

Suddenly, the blaster dropped from the attendant’s lax claws. The bat-creature had a glazed look on his furred face, eyes dull. 

“What the…” Din muttered, looking between the toddler on the ledge and the attendant. 

“Y-yer nobody, s-sir.” The Chadra-fan’s voice was monotone, like it was in a trance. Din’s shock was palpable.

“What?”

“N-nobody, sir. Nobody I know. Just passin’ through, ain’t that right?” Din looked sharply down at his young ward, eyes fully closed now, frozen in concentration. It took an effort to tear his eyes away to look back up at the Chadra-fan.

“Y-yes. That’s right.”

“No problem, no problem, no problem.” It murmured groggily again and again. “No problem here, sir.”

Suddenly, the child slumped to the side, Din catching him quickly in his arms. Concern jumped to the forefront of his mind, temporarily pushing down his confusion and the flash of… fear.

The attendant shook his head roughly, like it was just waking up. It looked up at him and smiled, fangs glinting.

“Oh, oh! Yer still here sir? No problem here.” He looked at his screen and frowned. “Looks like your ship’s deadlocked... s’weird. Hmmmm, there ya go, no problem.” It looked back up at him and smiled languidly, eyes still slightly glazed. “Yer all paid up sir, may as well be on yer way. Got other customers ya know.”

“Right.” Din muttered, still shaking off his shock. He wasn’t totally sure what had just happened, but he wouldn’t look a gift fathier in the mouth. “T-thank you.”

With that he turned away and stiffly strode back to the P39 loading tube as quickly as his feet could take him, eager for the safety of his ship. 

* * *

Din was staring at the kid. The kid was staring back.

Since returning to the ship, heart hammering in his chest, muscles weak with the rush of relief that they had somehow avoided capture - yet again - Din hadn’t been sure what to do. It was as though a nervous energy had overtaken his body. He hadn’t been able to sit still. Instead, he’d set the kid on a crate, barely sparing him a glance, and immediately started pacing. Back and forth. Back and forth. From one end of the Crest’s cargo bay to the other, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. 

No matter how he tried to wrap his head around what had happened… he just couldn’t. Sure the kid could lift things with his mind, but- but- _mind control_?

Because that was the only thing it could have been.

As impossibly ridiculous as that sounded… Din had seen it with his own eyes. Seen the way the kid lifted his hand to the window, squinted his eyes, and slumped after the effort. It all came back to the kid. It _had_ to be his doing. But _mind control?_ _Really?_ What did that mean? Had the kid ever used it on him? Would he even know? What _else_ could the kid do? His thoughts were spiraling quickly, but it all came back down to one helpless feeling.

What the _hell_ had he gotten himself into?

And beneath the confusion, beneath the disbelief, the spluttering incredulity… there was fear. He couldn’t deny it. He’d never feared the kid before today, not once. Not even after seeing the impressive display of power when he’d stopped the mudhorn. But this… this was different. This was dangerous. This was your _mind_. Your thoughts twisted and changed… Din could feel his heart racing, pounding loudly in his chest. But then he had shaken his head and stubbornly pushed the feeling down. 

_Osik_. This was the _kid_. The kid would never hurt him. He believed that. _He did._

And so, he’d stopped pacing and looked over at the crate, seeing that the kid was just watching him quietly. His ears were drooped, eyes wet, his little claws clasped together in front of him... like he was waiting for something. Shoulders slumping with a sigh, Din had stepped in front of him, dropping to one knee so that they were eye level.

And now here they were, staring at each other. Unsure where to even begin, the heavy silence stretched, until finally, Din cleared his throat softly.

“Kid...did you… ahm... was that... _you_?” Owlish black eyes stared back at him, mutely. The man motioned towards the airlock hatch. “Back there, when the attendant, uh, 'changed' his mind... did... did _you_ do that?”

The child's eyes glistened and his ears drooped further. Din's heart clenched.

“It’s… it’s okay if it was, buddy. You saved our lives. You got us out of a really tough situation.”

The kid’s ears raised a little at this, head cocking slightly to the side. His little shoulders were still stiff though. The Mandalorian raised a hand and the child flinched. Shocked, the man pulled his hand back, heart dropping into his boots. Any apprehension he had felt immediately melted away.

“Hey, hey, I’m not gonna hurt you." He implored softly. "I’d never hurt you _ad'ika_ , you know that right?”

A soft coo sounded, but the kid wouldn’t look up at him. Din sighed and tried again, slowly reaching out to the small body and was relieved to see the toddler didn’t flinch this time. Gently cupping the kid’s cheek, his palm engulfing the side of the little head, he brushed his thumb against one long ear.

So the kid could do some mind control. He’d just try to put it out of his mind. He trusted the little tyke. It's not like the boy would be able to explain it to him anyway.

“Kid… you’re real special. And you know how to do stuff that I just… don’t understand. Doesn’t make it bad. It just surprised me. I still don’t know exactly what you did… or how you did it, but it wasn’t bad. You’re a _good_ kid.”

The child’s eyes raised to meet his T-visor and tiny claws reached up to clasp around one of his fingers. 

Din felt a rush of affection swell in his chest, choking him on his next words. 

“That-” he cleared his throat weakly. “that was pretty close, though, huh?”

Tiny hands just squeezed his finger. He figured that was affirmation enough.

“Don't worry, _ad'ika_. We’re gonna be okay, you and me.” 

He heard a loud beep from the cockpit, indicating that the refueling had completed. Good. It was time to get _far_ away from here.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Mando'a Translations** :  
> utreekov - idiot  
> beskar’gam - Mandalorian armor  
> Osik - shit (generally)  
> ad'ika - little one, son
> 
> "Four arms'd be pretty handy, huh?" - Yes that was a Dad Joke™, and no, Din did not even realize he'd made it. He's a little oblivious like that, slippin' and slidin' into Dad territory.


End file.
